Strand-working mechanism



A in 27 1926'. 158mm A. H. ADAMS STRAND WORKING MECHANISM Filed 001;. '7, 1924 Emma:

Patented Apr. '27, 1926.

uuirsosfrnres PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR HERMAN ADAMS, OF LA GRANGE, ILLINOIS,

ASSIGNOR TO WESTERN ELEC- TRIO COMPANY, INCORPORATED, OF NEXV YORK,-N. Y., A CORPORATION OF YORK.

STRANDNVORKING MECHANISM.

To all whom it may concern,"

Be it known that I, ARTHUR IIERMAN ADAMS, a citizen of the United States, residing stLa Grange, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain newand useful IIDPIOVQDlQHtS'lD Strand- Vvorking Mechanisms, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description. V

This invention relates to strand work ing n'iechanisms', and more particularly to improvements in tension regulating devices therefore.

In winding stand material on spools having cores of non-circular cross-section, such elliptical or rectangular cores, it has been found that various intermittentstreises are imposed on the strand .ia-terial due to the rotating non-circular core alternately slackening and then jerking the strand, this alternative action being produced by the narrowest side of the core withdrawing strand material less rapidly from the supply source than the widest side thereoi;

When winding cores at high speeds, such as 10,000 R. P. lvL, the ordinary type of resilient tension regg ulating device does not compensate for, these intermittent strc ses due to the rapidity with which they take place; the period of vibration of the spring of the tension regulating device being comparatively greater than the period oi? the stresses and hence the spring cannot react to compensate for them.

it is desirable in winding such cores that these intermittent stresses be eliminated, inasmuch as they cause strains and stretching" of thewire and of the insulation, where the Wire is insulated, and in cases where an enamel. insulation is employed these f-t-l'ess'es tend to crack or seriously damage the enamel insulation, especially at those points where the radius of the core is least. Another. and serious effect of these s'treses or jerks, is that they cause a greatly increased average tension on the. Wire and thus build up much higher pressures between layers than occur in spools having circular cores. A further objectionable effect is that the stretching hardens and h s mmerses r i t vity t. the. Wire ties of the spool;

shown in Fig. 1;

materially, making the use of; the copper less ei iicient- In general, these intermittent stresses affect the uniformity with which the spool is wound and the electrical quali- An object of this invention is to provide in, strand working mechanism an improved tension regulating device for ninimixing deleterious stre'ises on the strand,

material.

To these ends a tension regulating device made in accordance with this invention consists of a pulley of very small mass mounted on av light weight hanger suspended on a compression spring of comparatively small mass and having short periods of ibration. The spring is car-- ried by iL-ll'lflillbl' of relatively great mass as compared with the spring and hanger, which member may take the form oi a plunger. The plunger is in turn supported and. surrounded by. a very flexible tension spring having relatively long periods of v bration. The flexible tension spring is adapted to compensate for larger and slower variations in tension, such as those caused by-acceleratlon or deceleration of the machine or of the supply spool, and the ('OIHPYQSSlOl] spring having short periods of vibration is adapted to compen:ate for the suddenirrep'ularities in tension caused bythe rotation of a non-circular type core.

Another feature of the invention is the provision of mechanism for stepping back the reciprocating distributor from the core as it is wound, but always maintaining it in proximity to the core.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will more fully appear from the following detailed"description taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings which illustrate one embodiment thereof, and in which i i Fig. l is a front view'o'fi the tension regu latingdevice, and the stepping back mecha nis applied tofa; windingmaehine which is how- 1 r g ne ari ya I Fig, 2 1s. a s de elevation ofthe structure Fi 3 is an, enlargeddetail; view of a por tion' of, the tension regulating device as s i9=vainE1e-.. 2. Y

small grooved Fig. 4 is an enlarged detailed View partly in section showing a modified type of distributor arm, and

Fig. 5 is a graphical representation of the reactions of the two springs of the tensioning device while in operation.

Referring now to the drawings in detail in which like reference numerals designate similar parts throughout the several views, denotes the frame of the winding ma chine on which is suitably supported a winding spindle 11 (Fig. 1). The winding machine may be of any suitable or usual type but the improved tension regulating device and the stepping back mechanism to be here inafter described are particularly designed for use with the type of winding machine disclosed in my Patent No. 1,117,620, dated November 17, 1914. Mounted on the winding spindle 11 is a spool 12 having a non-circular or elliptical type of core 13 (Fig. 2) which may be held in place thereon by any suitable means (not shown). Positioned immediately over and in proximity to the core 13 is a distributor 1 1 which is 'pivotally mounted at point 15 to an arm 16 (Figs. 1 and 2) projecting at right angles from an arm 17 which may be carried by a reciprocating carriage (not shown). Pivot ally mounted to an arm 18, projecting from the frame 10, is a bell crank lever 19 (Fig. 2), on one end of which is rotatably mounted a cork roller 20 and on the other end mounted a pin 21 which is adapted to ride in a cam-like groove 22 in the lower portion of the distributor 14.

The cork roller 20 is positioned immediately below and rides against the core 13 of the spool 12. Pivot point 23 of the lever 19 is provided with a plurality of cork washers 24 which frictionally engage the lever 19 and which act as a drag thereon, preventing the cork roller 20 from being moved out of its close relation to the spool 13. Surrounding one end of the arm 16 is a spring 36, one end of the spring being secured to a link 25 and the other end being secured to the distributor 14, which functions to prevent the distributor 14 from being moved out of close relation to the core 13 of the spool due to any irregularities caused by bllG cork roller 20 riding on the core. The link 25 extends from the arm 16 and with arm 17 supports av shaft 26 carrymg frame 31 of the tension regulating device denoted geuerallyby reference character 30.

" "lfensi'on regulating device consists essentially of a very flexible 161181011 spring 32 (Fig. 3) suitably secured at one end to the extremity of the frame 31fas indicated at point and at the other end to a plunger 34'which passes through the spring 32, a pulley 35 of very light mass, a very light weight hanger denoted general,-

ports the pulley The legs 73 of the yoke l '70 are threaded through diametrically opposed slots in the enlarged end 40 of the plunger 34 and through diametrically opposed apertures in the ring 38 formed on the plunger 34:; the tips of the legs being bent to form hooks 74, thereby supporting the yoke 70. Itwill be noted that the back of the member 72 rides in a slot 4-1 in the frame 31 (Figs. 1 and 2) which permits the pulley 35 to move up and down freely and also prevents the pulley from being moved out of the vertical path in which it travels.

The pulley 35 may be made of any suit able light material such as phenolized linen celluloid, or the like. Preferably, the pulley herein disclosed is made by molding a. star-shaped bearing in disks of phenolized linen.

The spring 32 is very flexible so as to enable it to respond readily to all the large and slower variations in tension on the material being wound, and to thereby prevent the material from stretching or breaking. In order to attain this flexibility, the spring 3 has a comparatively large number of turns of wire giving it a relatively long period of vibration, and hence it is unable to compensate for the rapid intermittent vibrations in tension on the material being wound, in; smuch as the period of these variations in tension is considerably less than the period of vibration.

The spring 39 is designed to respond to the l'iigh frequency variations in tension and has a short period of vibration. To have such a period the wire of the spring 39 is com paratively short as compared to its diameter. which means that it must be composed of relatively few turns of wire: the size of the wire and the mass of the hanger and supported pulley must be chosen to give at least the desired natural period. It will be noted that since spring 39 has fewer turns of wire it will necessarily have less flexibility, and hence will not respond to the large and slower variations in tension.

in the tension regulating device disclosed herein, it has been found that satisfactory results are attainable with a pulley 35 of .L grams. a hanger 3? of .27 grains and a small spring 39 of .06 grams.

llxtending; from one side of the frame 3 of the tcnsioning device 30 is an arm 4-:3 (Fig. 2) having a slot 453. Riding in th s slot e3 a bolt it, secured thereinby a pair 34. The hanger tensioning device of lock nuts (Fig. 1), on which is rotat-- ably mounted a grooved pulley to. It will he noted, referring to Fig. 2, that the groove 4.? of the pulley it is in alignment with. the groove l8 ot the pulley In the lower part of the frame Ell of the 30 is a slot 4:9 which is adapted to carry a bolt and nut (Fig. l) on which may be mounted a distributor 5t (Fig. l) which may be used in place or distributor l i whenever the particular spool being wound does not require the. distributor to be maintained at all times in proximity with the core oi the spool. This distributor 5'1. has a slot which makes it possible not only to adjust the'distributor 531 in a horizontal plane but also. to enable the adjust-- ment thereofin a. vertical plane.

The entire distributing mechanism, including both the tension regulating device 30 and the distributor 1d, are adapted to be reciprocate-d the length of the core of the spool by any suitable means (not shown). I

The distributor. Ll composed o'lf two lingers 53 and at (Fig. 2) and likewise the dis-- tributor 51 is composed of two'ling rs 55 and 56 (Fig. Figure. 53 is longer than linger 5i and linger 55 is longer than linger 56, which arrangement facilitates the placing of the strand 57 (Fig. between the distributing. tingers.

. The operationot the ll'lGClltllllSlIl is as follows: The stinndoiis fed from a usual sup ply source (not shown) under the pulley all through the groove 4-? thereof to and over the pulley thence between the distributing lingers and 54: of the distributor 1% which applies the strand to the revolving spool (Fig. 2).

As the strand wound onto the spool thecork roller 20 is moved downwardly which causes lever 19 to pivot thereby resulting in pin 21, on the other end of lever 19, gradually moving the distributor away from the spool being. wound. The cam-like groove 22 may be computed mathematically so as to nntintain a constant relative movement betweenthe distributor ll and spool 12 as it is being wound.

The larger and slower variations in tension, such as those imposed on the strand 5 upon starting the winding mechanism, are compensated for by the spring 32. The

small and rapid variations in tension, principally those imposed on the. strand by the rotation of a non-circular or elliptical shaped core. are compensated for by the lessllexib-le s gning 39, inasmuch asthe mass of the pui-v ley 35.; the hanger 37- and the small spring 39 less than that of the large spring 32 and plungerll and'since the period of time during which these variations take place is -very short. In other words the rotation otthe non-circular cor-e being coinparatiwly rapid, these small variations. in t not great enough to overcome the inertia of the large spring 32 and associated plunger 84. and hence must react on the small sp 'ing 35/.

Especially noteworthyis the fact that the tension regulating device 30. and the step ping back mechanism, denoted generally by reference character (it), may be used separately or together. v i

By applying the distributor :"il as shown in Fig. l to the groove if of the frame 81 and removing the stepping back mechanism (it). the tension re ulating mechanism 30 may be used by itsel'l .lly moving the pulley l6 outwardly in l3 and passing the strand over said pulley it) tiience to the distributor 1.4-, as shown -by the dot-ted lines in Fig. -1l-, the stepping back mechanism 60 may be used by itself. it will be noted that the drawings (Fig. show the tension regulating device 30 and the stepping back mechanism 60 in use together and the stepping back mechanism 60 iii use by itsel t.

lVhen the spool 12 has been lilled the operator pushes the tension regulating device 2-30 upwardly, rausing it and shaft 26 in the arm 17 at point til (Fig. l) and through the link 62 (Fig. 2) causing distributor ll to pivot at point 15 upwardly enabling the spool to be easily and readily removed "from the spindle ll.

to turn In order to more clearly illustrate the variations in tension an apparatus embodying the features of the invention was built with small pins soldered t e/points A, on the plunger 34;, and B on the end of hanger 57, respectively. A smoked chart or plate was then .passed over these points while the mechanism was in operation. The graph shown in- Fig. represents a portion of the variations in, tension registered on the smoked chartit is apparent that when a circular core is being wound a chart taken in the aforesaid manner would show substantially only two parallel lines but when a non-circular type core is being wound a chart taken in the aforesai d manner will not show two parallel lines, the lower line showing in addition to the large variations the slight ariations in tension, caused by the rotation of the non-circular core, which are compensated for by the small spring 39.

The tension regulating device herein disclosed is particularly advantageous in winding non-circular type cores such as flat, square ,or elliptical shaped. cores, butitis to be understood that this device may be used with advantage in winding any type ot' core, inasniiuch as it tends to minimize stress es imposed upon the strand material being wound. By using this tension regulating device and thus minimizing stresses upon the material. the core being wound can more eas 1v meet the electrical requirements. Fur- &

wound, this tension regulating device greatly minimizes the stretching of the wire and hence the cracking of the insulation. By so doing the number of short circuits in the wound spool is minimized and the spool is enabled to more easily meet much iiner electrical requirements than heretofore.

The stepping back mechanism herein disclosed enables he material to be wound on the spool much more uniformly, inasmuch as the distributor is at all times maintained in proximity to or at a constant distance from the wound strand on the core thereby minimizing the play in the strand being wound.

IV hat is claimed is:

1. In a tension regulating device forstrand working mechanism including means "for advancing a strand, :1 pair of elements co-operating to regulate the tension in the strand and responsive in dilierent degrees to a force tending to compress one of them and to expand the other.

2. In a. tension regulating device for strand working mechanisms including means for advancing a strand, a pair of interconnected elements for regulating the tension in the strand, one of the elements having greatflexibility and the other having comparatively less flexibility, the elements being responsive in different degrees to the tension imposed on the strand.

In a tension regulating device for strand working mechanisms including means for ad vancing a strand, a flexible element having a comparatively long period of vibration and an associatedelement 01 less flexibility having a comparatively short period of vibration, said elements being responsive in different degrees to the tension imposed upon the strand and compensating for variations in tension, thereby regulating the tension in the strand.

4. In a tension regulating device for winding mechanisms for winding a strand upon .a non-circular type core, resilient means for compensating for the variations in tension 01 one character imposed upon the strand, and other resilient means for compensating for the variations in tension of another character imposed upon the strand by the rotation of the non-circular type core, said means co-operating to regulate the tension in the strand.

5. In a tension regulating device for windingmechanisms for winding a strand upon a non-circular type core, a spring of great flexibility having a comparatively long pe-' riod of vibration, for compensating for the variations in tension of one character in posed upon the strand, and a spring carried thereby of lesser flexibility having a comparatively short period of vibration for compensating for the variations in tension of another character imposed on the strand by the rotation of the non-circular type core, said spring co-operating to regulate the tension in the strand.

6. In a tension regulating device for winding mechanisms for winding a strand upon a non-circular type core, an element engaged by the strand and two interconnected springs for resiliently supporting the said clement, one of the springs compensating for the variations in tension of one character imposed upon the strand and the other spring compensating for the variations in tension of another character imposed upon the strand by the rotation of the non-circular type core.

7. In a tension regulating device for winding mechanisms for winding a strand upon a non-circular type core, a pulley of very small mass and two interconnected springs for resiliently supporting the said pulley, one or" the springs compensating for the variations in tension of one character imposed upon the strand and the other spring compensating for the variations in tension of another character imposed upon the strand by the rotation of the non-circular type core.

8. In a tension regulating device for strand working mechanisms, a pulley of very small-mass, a spring of relatively little flexibility and having a comparatively short period of vibration for supporting the said pulley, an element of relatively great mass which supports the said spring, and a second spring of relatively great flexibility and having a comparatively long period of vibration which supports the element of great mass.

9. In a tension regulating device for strand working mechanisms including means for advancing a strand, a plurality of resilient means associated with the strand and regulating the tension thereon and selective- 1y compensating for variations of different characters in tension imposed on the strand.

10. In a tension regulating device for strand working mechanisms including means for advancing a strand, a resilient means responsive to variations of one character and non-responsive to variations of another charactor in tension on the strand, and another resilient means responsive to variations of the latter character, said resilient means cooperating to regulate the tension in the strand.

11. In a tension regulating device for strand working mechanisms including means for advancing a strand, a resilient means responsive to variations of one character and non-responsive to variations of another character in tension on the strand, and another resilient means responsive to variations of the latter character, said resilient means cooperating to regulate the tension in the strand and non-responsive to variations of the first mentioned character.

12; In a tension regulating device for strand working mechanisms including means for advancing a strand, a resilient means responsive to variations Within a predeternxined range of frequencies in tension on the strand, and another resilient means responsive to variations having frequencies outside the predetermined range, said resilient means co-0perating to regulate the tension in the strand.

13. In a tension regulating device for strand Working mechanisms including means for advancing a strand, a resilient means responsive to variations within a predetermined range of amplitudes in tension on the strand, and another resilient means responsive to variations of amplitudes-outside the predetermined range, said resilient means co-operating to regulate the tension in the strand.

14:. In a tension regulating device for strand Working mechanisms including means for advancing a strand, a plurality of resilient means for regulating the tension in the strand, individually responsive toand coinpensating for variations of diiierent degrees in tension imposed upon the strand.

' In Witness whereof, I hereunt-osubseribe my name this "27th day of September, A. 1).,

ARTHUR HERMAN ADAMS. 

